He said a buyer in New York was interested, but the logistics of shipping the 1-ton safe across the country were difficult. Besides, he wanted to keep the safe in Ashland, where he felt it belonged.

"Phil here recently bought Ashland Hardware, and I thought, 'Well, that's a nice match,' " he said. "That was my main thing. I'd like to keep it in the city."

Mallicoat said the safe was owned by Thomas H. Simpson, whose name appears in gold at the top of the safe. Simpson was born in 1867 and died in 1953. He owned a hardware store in Ashland for many years.

"People have told me back in the early '50s he was still there running it," Mallicoat said.

He said the safe was built in San Francisco in approximately 1883.

"It was probably shipped by rail," he said.

He gave Emard a typewritten piece of paper with the combination, and made plans to demonstrate the opening procedure once the safe is placed in its new location.

"It's so old, it doesn't have numbers, it has letters," he said, pointing at the dial.

Emard plans to display the safe adjacent to other antique hardware store memorabilia. He also hopes to get photos from the Southern Oregon Historical Society to give store patrons an idea of the safe's past.

"I think we've got a spot where it won't see too much wear," Emard said with sweat on his brow. "We've got an antique ACE sign, so we'll probably put it under that."

It was a combination of passions that made taking ownership of the safe something special for Emard. "I'm a history buff, and I love hardware stores, so the combination of the two is irresistible," he said. Emard also marveled at the safe's long role in the store's lineage.

"It just carries on the tradition," he said. "Before us, Paul Comstock had the store for 34 years and obviously this predates that," he said.